The invention is related generally to buckets or pails and, more specifically, to an improved handle and handle assembly comprising the handle and an associated attachment apparatus, the attachment apparatus designed for connecting the handle to a bucket or pail, particularly a bucket used by window cleaners on high-rise buildings.
Buckets or pails with handles are known to the art. However, those persons employed as window cleaners or window washers on high rise buildings use buckets containing cleaning liquid or water that must meet certain requirements of the trade. The window washer generally is seated in what is known in the art as a “boatswain chair”. The high-rise window washer accesses windows by swing stage or boatswain chair. The two systems that use the boatswain chair are the Manual Boatswain Chair and the Control Descent System. The Manual Boatswain Chair system uses block and tackle to raise or lower the window washer to the windows. The Control Descent System uses gravity by starting at the roof and rappelling over the side. The rate of descent is controlled using a descent device. The descent device regulates the movement down the rope by way of friction. The window washer can descend down to the window and then lock the device until ready to descend to the next window. In most cases, the window washer hangs his bucket on one or more snap hooks suspended from the side of the boatswain chair so that the bucket is readily accessible.
Prior art buckets typically used for hanging on a boatswain chair have several drawbacks. First, to keep the weight down, the buckets usually are plastic with thin, flexible wire handles. The bucket is attached to the boatswain chair by fastening the wire handle onto a single snap hook, or to double snap hooks on the boatswain's chair. A conventional wire handle can shift or slide along a single snap hook and tip or spill. With double snap hooks, the normal arc of the wire handle must be distorted to fasten to the snap hooks. Furthermore, the weight of the liquid in the bucket can cause the handle to pull out or deform the handle or cause the plastic to crack and fail around the handle. Since conventional handles are mounted on the outside of the bucket, the weight of the liquids in the bucket can cause the sides of the bucket to collapse inwardly at the points where the handle is mounted to the bucket.
It is possible with a properly designed bucket handle and centered snap hook to suspend a bucket from the single snap hook in a manner that eliminates the sliding, tipping and spilling from the bucket that is especially dangerous to window washers and bystanders below the washer. U.S. Pat. No. 6,352,169 describes a rigid, inverted V-shaped handle made of aluminum rod for use with double sling chairs. The V-shaped handle is mounted on a bucket and configured so that the bucket is suspended from a snap hook, which is fastened to the V-shaped handle at the apex of the inverted V-shape. The rigid construction and V-shaped configuration of the handle prevents the sliding and tipping of the bucket that occurs when the standard wire handle is used for suspension from the single snap hook.
However, the bucket handle design of U.S. Pat. No. 6,352,169 and similar designs require that the handle be secured to the bucket with a nut and threaded shaft configuration that adds machining and assembly costs. In addition, these configurations require means to ensure that the nut does not loosen or fall free from the handle, which could cause the bucket to tip or spill during use.
Further, it is desirable for buckets being used in most applications and in particular for window washing buckets, that the bucket handle freely rotate about the bucket at the bucket mounts. This allows the bucket to rest at a natural equilibrium and eliminates the undesirable rotational torque to the handle and the bucket that would otherwise result from a bucket swinging from a handle rigidly attached to the bucket, or attached in a way that would hinder at least in part the free rotation of the bucket relative to the bucket. Unfortunately, the bucket handle design of U.S. Pat. No. 6,352,169 and similar designs hamper the rotation of the bucket relative to the handle at the handle mounts. A need therefore remains for an improved bucket handle design for window washer's buckets that is easier to assemble and therefore more cost effective to manufacture, and that allows the bucket handle to more freely rotate relative to the body of the bucket.
In addition, it is often desirable to secure a lid to the upper lid of a bucket that has a handle mounted to the inner surface of a bucket. Unfortunately, bucket handles that are attached to the inner surface of a bucket, such as for example the handle of U.S. Pat. No. 6,352,169, interfere with and preclude the placement and securing of a bucket lid to the bucket's upper lip. A need therefore remains for an improved bucket handle assembly design for window washer's buckets and buckets for other applications that is easier to assemble and therefore more cost effective to manufacture, and that allows the bucket handle to be positioned for ready access, yet also be storable within the bucket so as not to interfere with the placement of a lid atop the bucket's upper lip.
Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views of the drawings.